The Edison Electric Institute named Public Service Electric & Gas the recipient of the 2022 Edison Award, the electric utility industry's highest honor, in recognition of its industry-leading efforts to protect New Jersey communities and customers from extreme weather conditions. The announcement was made Tuesday, evening at EEI's Annual Convention and Expo in Orlando, Florida.
PSE&G was recognized for initiatives that set a new benchmark for modernizing utility infrastructure. Specifically, in the years following Superstorm Sandy, the company launched a historic infrastructure modernization program to fortify New Jersey's electric and natural gas systems against future storms — with even more investment planned in future phases.
"We are honored and grateful for this recognition and proud of our efforts to serve 2.3 million customers and enhance their lives and businesses by making our distribution systems more resilient in the face of increasingly extreme weather events," said Kim Hanemann, president and COO, PSE&G.
The investments to protect customers from the extreme weather caused by climate change are fundamental to PSEG's Powering Progress vision of a future where people use less energy, and it's cleaner, safer and delivered more reliably than ever.
"Climate change has made fortifying New Jersey's energy infrastructure imperative. The benefits of this initiative were clear last fall when Tropical Storm Ida hit New Jersey hard, but significantly fewer customers lost power than during previous intense storms," said Hanemann.
This is the third time in PSE&G's 119-year history that the utility has received the Edison Award.
"Delivering resilient clean energy to our customers and to our communities always is the top priority for EEI and for our member companies," said Tom Kuhn, president, EEI. "After Superstorm Sandy hit a decade ago, PSE&G's forward-thinking Energy Strong program, has reinforced its commitment to making the investments needed to enhance energy grid reliability and resilience. PSE&G is exceptionally deserving of this prestigious recognition, and I congratulate them for being named this year's Edison Award winner."
